Introduction to Theory of

Computation

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What is Automata Theory?
■ Study of abstract computing devices, or
“machines”
■ Automaton = an abstract computing device
■ Note: A “device” need not even be a physical
hardware!
■ A fundamental question in computer science:
■ Find out what different models of machines can do
and cannot do
■ The theory of computation
■ Computability vs. Complexity

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(A pioneer of automata theory)

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

■ Father of Modern Computer
Science
■ English mathematician
■ Studied abstract machines called
Turing machines even before
computers existed
■ Heard of the Turing test?

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Theory of Computation: A
Historical Perspective
1930s • Alan Turing studies Turing machines
• Decidability
• Halting problem
1940-1950s • “Finite automata” machines studied
• Noam Chomsky proposes the
“Chomsky Hierarchy” for formal
languages
1969 Cook introduces “intractable” problems
or “NP-Hard” problems
1970- Modern computer science: compilers,
computational & complexity theory evolve
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 Languages & Grammars
■ Languages: “A language is a
Or “words” collection of sentences of
finite length all constructed
from a finite alphabet of
symbols”
■ Grammars: “A grammar can
be regarded as a device that
enumerates the sentences of
a language” - nothing more,
nothing less

■ N. Chomsky, Information and

Control, Vol 2, 1959

Image source: Nowak et al. Nature, vol 417, 2002

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The Chomsky Hierachy
• A containment hierarchy of classes of formal
languages

Regul
ar Context-
Context-
(DFA) free Recursively-
sensitive
(PDA) enumerable
(LBA)
(TM)

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The Central Concepts of
Automata Theory

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Alphabet
An alphabet is a finite, non-empty set of
symbols
■ We use the symbol ∑ (sigma) to denote an
alphabet
■ Examples:
■ Binary: ∑ = {0,1}
■ All lower case letters: ∑ = {a,b,c,..z}
■ Alphanumeric: ∑ = {a-z, A-Z, 0-9}
■ DNA molecule letters: ∑ = {a,c,g,t}
■ …

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Strings
A string or word is a finite sequence of symbols
chosen from ∑
■ Empty string is ε (or “epsilon”)

■ Length of a string w, denoted by “|w|”, is equal

to the number of (non- ε) characters in the string
■ E.g., x = 010100 |x| = 6

■ xy = concatentation of two strings x and y

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Powers of an alphabet
Let ∑ be an alphabet.

■ ∑k = the set of all strings of length k

■ ∑* = ∑0 U ∑1 U ∑2 U …

■ ∑+ = ∑ 1 U ∑ 2 U ∑ 3 U …

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Languages
L is a said to be a language over alphabet ∑, only if L ⊆ ∑*
🡺 this is because ∑* is the set of all strings (of all possible
length including 0) over the given alphabet ∑
Examples:
1. Let L be the language of all strings consisting of n 0’s
followed by n 1’s:
L = {ε, 01, 0011, 000111,…}
2. Let L be the language of all strings of with equal number of
0’s and 1’s:
L = {ε, 01, 10, 0011, 1100, 0101, 1010, 1001,…}
Canonical ordering of strings in the language

Definition: Ø denotes the Empty language

■ Let L = {ε}; Is L=Ø?
NO
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The Membership Problem
Given a string w ∈∑*and a language L
over ∑, decide whether or not w ∈L.

Example:
Let w = 100011
Q) Is w ∈ the language of strings with
equal number of 0s and 1s?

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Finite Automata
■ Some Applications
■ Software for designing and checking the behavior
of digital circuits
■ Lexical analyzer of a typical compiler
■ Software for scanning large bodies of text (e.g.,
web pages) for pattern finding
■ Software for verifying systems of all types that
have a finite number of states (e.g., stock market
transaction, communication/network protocol)

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Finite Automata : Examples
action
■ On/Off switch state

■ Modeling recognition of the word “then”

Start state Transition Intermediate Final state

state
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Structural expressions
■ Grammars
■ Regular expressions
■ E.g., unix style to capture city names such
as “Palo Alto CA”:
■ [A-Z][a-z]*([ ][A-Z][a-z]*)*[ ][A-Z][A-Z]

Start with a letter

A string of other
letters (possibly Should end w/ 2-letter state code
empty)

Other space delimited words

(part of city name) 15